Abraham V\u00e9lez de Cea
\nEastern Kentucky University<\/p>\n
This article clarifies the nature of Buddhist ethics from a comparative perspective. It contends that the Dalai Lama\u2019s ethics is best understood as a pluralistic approach to virtue ethics. The article has two parts. The first part challenges Charles Goodman\u2019s interpretation of Mah\u0101y\u0101na Buddhist ethics as an instance of consequentialism. This is done indirectly, that is, not by questioning Goodman\u2019s reading of \u015a\u0101ntideva and Asa\u1e45ga, but rather by applying to the Dalai Lama\u2019s ethics the same test that Goodman uses to justify his reading of Mah\u0101y\u0101na ethics as a whole. The second part examines the Dalai Lama\u2019s ethics in comparison to Christine Swanton, a representative of a pluralistic approach to virtue ethics in contemporary analytic philosophy. By comparing the ethics of the Dalai Lama and Swanton, the article does not wish to suggest that her pluralistic approach to virtue ethics is the closest western analogue to Buddhist virtue ethics. I use comparison, not to understand the Dalai Lama\u2019s ethical ideas from the perspective of Swanton\u2019s ethics, but rather to highlight what is unique about the Dalai Lama\u2019s approach to virtue ethics, which is pluralistic in a characteristically Buddhist way.<\/p>\n
Read article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ISSN 1076-9005 Volume 20, 2013 The Dalai Lama and the Nature of Buddhist Ethics Abraham V\u00e9lez de Cea Eastern Kentucky University This article clarifies the nature of Buddhist ethics from a comparative perspective. It contends that the Dalai Lama\u2019s ethics is best understood as a pluralistic approach to virtue ethics. The article has two parts. … Continue reading The Dalai Lama and the Nature of Buddhist Ethics<\/span>